Not quite how either of us remember it, but Susan and I – described in a recent article on The Daily Express website as Sue and Susan who write books – had a little chuckle at the account by TV reporter Roxanne Hughes of our debut on television quiz show Pointless.

She described our consternation when co-hosts Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman announced the first round of the competition would be on chemical elements.

We seemed, she said, to be incredibly excited – which completely baffled both Armstrong and Osman.

‘We’ve never had a reaction like this before,’ Armstrong said.

Expertise

And Osman nodded in agreement. ‘It’s interesting to get such an enormous reaction from a chemistry round.’

Yes, we certainly reacted – but that was only because both of us have more expertise in periodicals than the periodic table.

So, we’d spent a good chunk of that morning’s two hour train journey between Yorkshire and London cramming our heads with chemical elements and symbols and, just in case, the names of the most recent managers of the England football team.

Wardrobe mishap

Sadly, there weren’t any questions on the latter, but the rote learning – iridium, radium and rubidium – paid off and we sailed into the second round.

What happened next is another story although you can read Susan’s account of our Pointless journey – and our wardrobe mishap – here.

And the Express online story can be found here.

Report by Sue Featherstone.